Northern Trust Opens Malaysia Office

Northern Trust has opened an office in Malaysia to extend its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The representative office will support current institutional clients and develop Northern Trust’s businesses in Malaysia and the region. Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing global region for Northern Trust, with assets under custody growing at an annual rate of 26% from 2008 through 2013, and assets under management growing by 15% annually over that five-year period.

Ariani Rustam is chief representative of the new office. She joins from Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank where she had been a senior executive in risk management, operations, quantitative analytics and, for the last five years, manager of the External Fund Management division, where she led the introduction of new asset classes to diversify the investment of the bank’s reserves.

Northern Trust has provided global custody and related services to Malaysian clients since 2009, leveraging its global operating model with centers of expertise in Singapore, Bangalore, London and Chicago. As chief representative in Malaysia, Rustam will coordinate relationship building in key financial segments such as sovereign entities, government agencies, pension funds and insurance funds.

“Malaysia is a dynamic country with a growing economy and increasing global investment, presenting an opportunity for growth in the services that we offer to large, sophisticated institutional investors,” said William Morrison, president and COO of Northern Trust. “We are pleased to establish a local presence in this important market.”